Assist me with TV Tuner woes

Pigbristle · Post by **Pigbristle** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 3:02 pm

Just picked up a Videomate S350 TV Tuner card from Scan uk.

The Description:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=683707
say it has an "RF/Ariel in" connector.

Now for the life of me, I can't see a RF connector on the back of it.
It has only two of the (screwed type) coax cable connectors

Now all I have is a bog standard Ariel on my roof, no satellite.

So have I bought the wrong card? or can I change the connector on my RF cable to new screwed coax type connector & every thing will be rosy?

Can anybody reassure me, please!!

psiu · Post by **psiu** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 5:26 pm

wth? I posted a reply an hour ago to this thread, but it's not here...I'll try to do it again.

You must have the unshielded pair aerial line. You need a 300ohm to 75ohm transformer (assuming those are the standards over there). Should be nice and cheap. Nowadays even an aerial line would be ran with shielded coax to keep interference to a minimum.

--or--

Good luck!

nick705 · Post by **nick705** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 1:58 am

AFAICT that is a satellite (DVB-S) tuner only, so, yes, you've bought the wrong card if you want to receive UK DVB-T/Freeview broadcasts.

Assuming you're in a Freeview reception area (check here), what you want is a DVB-T card like this or this, and if you want to watch one channel while recording another, you'll need two of them or a twin-tuner card like this or this.

If you can't get Freeview because you're in a weak signal area, you'll need a hybrid digital/analogue card with a built-in hardware encoder, like this. IMO it's hardly worth fannying around with analogue TV on a PC though, as the results aren't exactly inspiring.

Please note that I don't have any experience with any of the hardware I've linked (apart from the Hauppauge HVR-1300, which is a quality piece of kit if rather expensive for what it does) - I'm just showing a few examples, and I can't really comment on their individual performance or ease of setup.

I've always found Scan to be friendly and helpful (if a little laid-back at times), and I'm sure if you give them a ring they'll sort things out for you.

Pigbristle · Post by **Pigbristle** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 2:49 am

Psiu / Nick705

Thanks for your time & the links you supplied.

So I did buy the wrong card then! Can't help feeling it was partly due to Scan though advertising it as "RF/in" (otherwise I wouldn't have bought it).

I also find the staff helpful in the store but the amount of times I've had to return things, is getting beyond a joke.

So you think I should go for the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR1300 then?

hey Nick, you gonna be there for support when I need yer ;o)

nick705 · Post by **nick705** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 3:26 am

Pigbristle wrote: Can't help feeling it was partly due to Scan though advertising it as "RF/in" (otherwise I wouldn't have bought it).

Yup, fair comment.

Pigbristle wrote: So you think I should go for the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR1300 then?

I think Hauppauge cards are a reasonably "safe bet," if there is such a thing - they seem to work well with most third-party HTPC applications as well as Vista Media Center, and they're well supported with regular driver updates, which is more than can be said of some others. Having said that, providing you can pick up digital terrestrial broadcasts OK, there's really no good reason to buy a hybrid card like the HVR-1300, as you could get a twin-tuner (digital only) card such as the WinTV Nova-T 500 for the same money or less.

Pigbristle wrote: hey Nick, you gonna be there for support when I need yer ;o)

I think I feel one of my migraines coming on... "retires to bed, pulls duvet over head"...

Pigbristle · Post by **Pigbristle** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 8:23 am

[quote]I think I feel one of my migraines coming on... "retires to bed, pulls duvet over head

the dreaded "support" word!! LOL.

psiu · Post by **psiu** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 9:36 am

And they will all have the same screw-on connector, so you will probably still need the adapter. I would encourage the screw on one...I have never liked the push on ones, plus it would fit better on the back of pc (not blocking other ports).

Also another vote for Hauppage--they seem to be the most commonly supported whether Windows or Linux. I have 3 of their cards (all analogue however).

Monkeh16 · Post by **Monkeh16** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 10:06 am

psiu wrote:And they will all have the same screw-on connector, so you will probably still need the adapter.

No they won't. Belling Lee (Or IEC 169-2) connectors are the standard in the UK.

psiu · Post by **psiu** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 1:22 pm

goofy euro connectors

Monkeh16 · Post by **Monkeh16** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 1:56 pm

psiu wrote:

goofy euro connectors

Yup. Honestly, I wish they weren't. But they are.

Hey, at least it's not SCART.

quikkie · Post by **quikkie** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 7:06 am

Pigbristle - if you haven't already bought replacement hardware I can recommend the Compro E700 (dual DVB-T tuner) it's a PCI-E x1 card that works great (for me!) under vista media center. My only niggle about it is that it doesn't do RF pass-through (no RF out) so I had to buy a splitter to plug the aerial output into both my TV and MC.